Sunday, April 15, 2007
From Wikipedia:
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ is the English translation of the Portuguese novel, O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo by José Saramago [Nobel-laureate in 1998]. It was translated in 1994 by Giovanni Pontiero, three years after the original was published in 1991. It is deemed to be very controversial, having been criticized by the Catholic church for blasphemy.
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ is the English translation of the Portuguese novel, O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo by José Saramago [Nobel-laureate in 1998]. It was translated in 1994 by Giovanni Pontiero, three years after the original was published in 1991. It is deemed to be very controversial, having been criticized by the Catholic church for blasphemy.
Plot introduction
This book reimagines the life of Jesus Christ, using the events depicted in the canonical gospels as a scaffold on which to build its story. It more or less follows the chronology of the life of Jesus Christ, however much greater emphasis is spent on the earlier part of Jesus' life than in the canonical gospels.
[...]
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
A famous Catholic: Adolf Hitler. And considerations on destructiveness
by Joe London
by Joe London
"Therefore, I am convinced that I am acting as the agent of our Creator. By fighting off the Jews, I am doing the Lord's Work." (Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf)
"Christ was the greatest early fighter in the battle against the world enemy, the Jews ... The work that Christ started but could not finish, I -- Adolf Hitler -- will conclude." (Adolf Hitler, at a Nazi Christmas celebration in 1926)
"I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator. By warding off the Jews, I am fighting for the Lord's work." (Adolf Hitler, in a Reichstag speech in 1938)
"I am now as before a Catholic and will always remain so" (Adolf Hitler, to Gerhard Engel, one of his generals, in 1941)
The above quotes were found here. In the same page, the author, Anne Nicol Gaylor writes "I have often reflected, wistfully, on how much happier modern history might have been had Hitler been brought up as an atheist, an agnostic, or, at least, a Unitarian. Born and bred a Catholic, he grew up in a religion and in a culture that was anti-semitic, and in persecuting Jews, he repeatedly proclaimed he was doing the 'Lord's work.'"
Yeah. I wonder too what the world would have been like.
Swiss psychoanalyst Alice Miller has pointed out how the personality of Adolf Hitler might have been strongly conditioned by the short-tempered and brutal father, Alois. I agree with her.
Nevertheless, one cannot help wondering if a different religious upbringing (which however contributes to creating a certain "psychological climate"), might have made at least a bit of a difference.
Adolf Hitler in his group of Catholic choir group, photograph found here.
Interesting how the worst tyrants and leaders of the most brutal regimes can claim to be pious and even instruments of God's providence.
Some might argue that "it does not make any sense to underline psychological dynamics as a primary cause of violence and destructiveness in the world. There are myriads of reasons behind, historical, economical, sociological etc.".
But it seems to me that by stressing those causal levels - history, economy etc. - so abstract, so far, so disembodied, we end up considering them as a vast noxious fog that intoxicates humans, driving them into madness, ineluctably, without any possibility of control. And this may, in turn lead to a form of complacent contemplation of the world, or fatalism, to thinking that things will never change, because humans are either too weak, or too evil, to change the amount of violence and destructiveness in the world.
I, conversely, think that attention should be placed on the individual. It is in the core of the individual the games are played for the whole society and the unfolding of history. It is in the individual that the seeds are placed of violence and destructiveness. And upbringing and education provide either the fertile ground for violence and destructiveness to germinate or the refractory ground that rejects them.
Have individuals grow in a world of authoritarianism, gratuity, arbitrariness, violence, abuse, however masked by concepts of virtue and morality and even religion, and you will not be surprised if those very same individuals, crushed in the core of their very self, will either perpetuate the same violence, amplified, or support the contingent dictator, because a internalised "little Hitler", created by the abuses of authoritarian figures, justifies or gives credit to him.
Have individuals live in freedom, respect, true affection, unthwarted in their spontaneous joys, protected by abuse and violence, respected in their desires and aspirations, and not forced to live in the secluded and high-walled places of madness that many families are (when they are) (despite the rhetoric often associated to the supposed "sacred family"), or not indoctrinated and manipulated by religion and certain forms of education, and you can be sure that sound and healthy individuals will never accept violence, abuse and arbitrariness and will never condone or be impressed by the loud and vulgar voice of those who justify them.
But it seems to me that by stressing those causal levels - history, economy etc. - so abstract, so far, so disembodied, we end up considering them as a vast noxious fog that intoxicates humans, driving them into madness, ineluctably, without any possibility of control. And this may, in turn lead to a form of complacent contemplation of the world, or fatalism, to thinking that things will never change, because humans are either too weak, or too evil, to change the amount of violence and destructiveness in the world.
I, conversely, think that attention should be placed on the individual. It is in the core of the individual the games are played for the whole society and the unfolding of history. It is in the individual that the seeds are placed of violence and destructiveness. And upbringing and education provide either the fertile ground for violence and destructiveness to germinate or the refractory ground that rejects them.
Have individuals grow in a world of authoritarianism, gratuity, arbitrariness, violence, abuse, however masked by concepts of virtue and morality and even religion, and you will not be surprised if those very same individuals, crushed in the core of their very self, will either perpetuate the same violence, amplified, or support the contingent dictator, because a internalised "little Hitler", created by the abuses of authoritarian figures, justifies or gives credit to him.
Have individuals live in freedom, respect, true affection, unthwarted in their spontaneous joys, protected by abuse and violence, respected in their desires and aspirations, and not forced to live in the secluded and high-walled places of madness that many families are (when they are) (despite the rhetoric often associated to the supposed "sacred family"), or not indoctrinated and manipulated by religion and certain forms of education, and you can be sure that sound and healthy individuals will never accept violence, abuse and arbitrariness and will never condone or be impressed by the loud and vulgar voice of those who justify them.
